title: Aging 5 years in 5 minutes: the effect of taking a memory test on older adults' subjective age.
abstract: How old one feels-one's subjective age-has been shown to predict important psychological and health outcomes. The current studies examined the effect of taking a standard memory test on older adults' subjective age. Study 1 showed that older adults felt older after taking a standard neuropsychological screening test and participating in a free-recall experiment than they felt at baseline. Study 2 showed that the effect was selective to older adults: Younger adults' subjective age was not affected by participating in the memory experiment. Study 3 showed that the subjective-aging effect was specific to memory, as taking a vocabulary test for a similar amount of time did not affect older adults' subjective age. Finally, Study 4 showed that simply expecting to take a memory test subjectively aged older adults. The results indicate that being in a memory-testing context affects older adults' self-perception by making them feel older.
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University.
authors.forename: Matthew L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Geraci
authors.forename: Ross L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: De Forrest
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012647:Self-Assessment; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: aging; context; memory; stereotypes; subjective age